UN World Food Programme Consultant for Farmers Cooperatives Financial Management Jobs in Rwanda
UN World Food Programme Consultant for Farmers Cooperatives Financial Management Jobs in Rwanda
About WFP The United Nations World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. The mission of WFP is to help the world achieve Zero Hunger in our lifetimes. Every day, WFP works worldwide to ensure that no child goes to bed hungry and that the poorest and most vulnerable, particularly women and children, can access the nutritious food they need.
Since 2008, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Rwanda has supported smallholder agriculture market development through a range of activities, including smallholder capacity strengthening, good agricultural practices, post-harvest handling and storage, governance and financial literacy, access to finance and market through collaboration with the government of Rwanda and different agriculture value chain actors.
In order to contribute to achieving these goals, WFP Smallholder Agricultural Market Support (SAMS) Unit has also been mandated to support smallholder farmers, implementing a diversity of projects, including Sustainable Agricultural Productivity and Market Linkage Project (SAPMP), Home-Grown School Feeding (HGSF), Peace Building Funds Cross-border Project (PBF), and Sustainable Market alliance and Asset Creation for Resilient Communities and Gender Transformation (SMART) under the umbrella of Farm to Market Alliance (FtMA).
WFP/SAMS through these several projects has been supporting farmers organizations(FOs)/cooperatives to increase the capacity of both individuals and farmer groups, to strengthen FOs and broaden their access to market and financial services.
Background
On the recent scorecard and group discussion exercise conducted to understand each cooperative's institutional strength and potential for growth and sustainability, there are many cooperatives identified with weak institutional capacity. In particular, the FOs capacity for operational management, financial management, sales and marketing, and technical information needs to be enhanced through specific training and close coaching programmes.
Overall, in many cooperatives, the Board of Directors for cooperatives functioned well, with Board Members being elected officials with job descriptions and well-documented meetings. However, even though the majority of cooperatives have RCA certificates as well as clear statutes and internal regulations, there are still young considering the duration of post-registration.
Gaps in governance include limited frequency of General Assembly (GA) meetings as well as a limitation to board communication with cooperative members, especially on cooperative by-laws dissemination. There were also gaps in knowledge, communication and understanding of various functions between the Supervisory Boards and Boards of Directors.
Notably, gaps include missing operational manuals and qualified accountants. Only few cooperatives are in the process of developing long-term business plans and have a sufficient financial manual and monitoring system in place. There is also a lack of access to, and knowledge of opportunities for, capital finance and investment finance. Through baseline consultations, there emerged a strong need to train cooperatives on capitalization, both for working capital and investment finance.
Thus, the recent exercise shows that in general cooperative governance systems are not well-established. However, there is a motivation to improve amongst cooperative groups. For example, there is a common disconnect between board members' knowledge and understanding of institutional contracts and cooperative activities relative to members, which became apparent during the scorecard exercise and focus group discussions.
Furthermore, cooperatives' business and financial planning and reporting processes were not well-established, there was inconsistent application or understanding of cooperative by-laws, and also a demonstrated lack of knowledge of opportunities for capital and investment finance for infrastructure, such as mechanisms for grains storage.
Strengthening cooperative systems through coaching coupled with training on post-harvest handling will better prepare and situate cooperatives to improve operations, reduce post-harvest losses and, access more institutional buyers. As part of this process, it is essential for cooperative leaders to be more transparent with cooperative
members about institutional contracts.
Job Purpose
Our assumption is that when farmers embrace improved governance and financial management/ access, their production levels can increase with higher quality and sustainably improve their incomes and resilience, as well as their commercial viability. Therefore, the governance and financial management training and coaching programme aims to enhance smallholder FOs' capacities in governance, financial management, operational management, sales/marketing, and leadership in a representative manner.
The overall objectives of the training/coaching service provision are:
To strengthen FOs governance and transparent management system
To improve the management and institutional power of agricultural cooperatives
To enhance the capacity of financial management and better service with financial manual and monitoring system
To promote access to financial services for FOs to reduce dependency on limited government resources.
To develop a long-term business plan including a capitalization component, with an agreed-upon set of coaching sessions per supported FO.
Scope of Assignment
Geographical scope
Kigali: Gasabo
North Province: Gakenke, Gicumbi, Bulera
East Province: Gatsibo, Kayonza
South Province: Nyaruguru, Nyamagabe, Muhanga
West Province: Rutsiro, Karongi, Rubavu
The Training/Coaching programme targets in total 60 Farmers organizations/cooperatives in Rwanda on a rolling basis between May 2022 and December 2024. However, the number of target cooperatives may increase or decrease, depending on the internal discussion. Also, the size, duration, maturity level of the cooperatives are different, and the details about the cooperatives will be provided to develop an appropriate work plan.
Responsibilities
From May 2022 to December 2024, in a close supervision of head of SAMS and the lead consultant in governance and financial management coaching and training, the consultant will mainly support to
Develop the coaching programme/training modules and workplan for the cooperative financial management:
Identify gender mainstreaming gaps in FO’s management and financial capacity;
Assess and analyze financial literacy at the cooperative level;
Develop the training implementation and coaching programme for the board and controlling committee members as well as selected cooperatives members; and
Develop and update existing or new manuals and materials for knowledge development.
Conduct training sessions in Financial management targeting FOs/leaders and selected members:
Update the training module;
Avail templates for financial and audit reporting as well as data aggregation;
Facilitate the training sessions using participatory principles and methods;
Provide targeted controlling committee members with knowledge and skills in advanced financial literacy to help them conduct quality audits within the cooperative;
Promote the willingness of cooperative members to be grouped for sustainable agribusiness;
Promote more engagement with saving groups, financial institutions, and private sectors.
Implement the Coaching Programme with close consultation and monitoring:
Conduct regular consultation and monitoring sessions after training;
Conduct scorecard exercises and joint field visits with WFP staff for M&E purposes;
Ensure that governing board, controlling committee, and selected members have acquired knowledge and skills in governance, institutional and financial management and control (control process, frequency etc.) and can apply them in their daily jobs;
Share best practices in financial management and control among participants.
Develop a sustainable and long-term management plan:
Support FOs to develop a sustainable business development plan;
Support FOs to develop a capitalization plan; and
Support FOs to implement concrete action plans for sustainable management.
Qualifications and Requirements
The Consultant should hold a professional (Bachelor or Masters) degree in Agriculture, Rural Development, International Development, Agricultural business or a related study field.
The Consultant should have proven professional experience of at least seven years in cooperative management, governance or financial coaching or related field.
The Consultant will be required to work with a team leader (separate recruitment).
How to Apply
For more information and job application details, see; UN World Food Programme Consultant for Farmers Cooperatives Financial Management Jobs in Rwanda
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